Codes and conventions of a film noir
The classic film noir consists of many things that run through all of
the films and is a sequence in what happens. The films is set in black
and white to show mystery, this is because shady characters appear more
mysterious in black and white which adds to
the affect of the whole film. There are often three main characters in a
film noir: a detective, a bad guy and a femme fatale. The detective
often wears the same clothing: a fedora hat, a suit with an over coat
and they are often smoking. The visual style
of the film is to have low key lighting when something happens such as a
killing. Film noirs use detectives instead of police men as they can
bend the rules and make things more interesting. The femme fatale often
has a motive through out the film which makes
her do what she does.
Films such as maltese falcon demonstrates all of the things that happen
on a typical film noir. The start of the opening scene is an
establishing shot of the city it is based in, big cities such as san
Francisco are often used in film noirs as most of the bad
guys that are in it are from the down town are of that location. In
maltese falcon the killing happened in a dark alley, this is to add to
the mystery to what happened, this is the enigma for the film as it is
what the story is based about and what the detectives
are trying to find out. Straight away you see the detective in his
office, he is smoking and wearing the typical detective gear ( fedora
hat, suit), he is also smoking as that was very popular at the time.
Angel is the character that helps the detective and
appears to be glowing when she comes into shot. This may be to represent
her character and that she is the good person out of everything that
happens. She then greets in another woman, this woman is wearing posh
clothing to show that she is high status. the
detective look up and down the woman, this is because the director
wanted to show how controlling the femme fatale is even when she does
not say much. The woman is the femme fatale in this film, we know this
early on as she says that she will be in the hotel
after talking about the problems that are happening, however when they
go there she is checked out and moved o, this is because she wanted to
cause trouble.
After the woman leave, the next shot is a killing in a dark alley. The
shot has low key lighting and all you can see is the gun and the man
that got shot four times. This scene is the enigma for the film as it is
what the film is based on as the detectives
want to find out who killed him. The mystery that is created by the low
key lighting also acts as the hook for the film which makes people sit
on the end of their seats. The detective then gets a phone call in his
room about the killing. The setting of his
room is very typical, he has a newspaper, clock and a hanker chief on
his be side table. The room is quite dark which could represent how dark
the timing is at the film as someone just died. When he is talking on
the phone he has no change in his voice as it
stays the same tone. This is to show how the detective does not have
many feeling as his friend just died but he does not seem to be upset
about it.
The next shot is the two detectives questioning a man on what he knows
about the killing. The two cops play the good cop bad cop routine, this
is very stereotypical for film noirs as it is seems as the most
affective way and most well known way of interrogating
someone. The man seems suspicious as he is hesitant in his answers, this
is done to keep the viewer thinking of what could be happening and if
he was the killer. They then start drinking whiskey which is very common
for the detectives to do in this film genre,
this is to show that they are tough characters.
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